A wave of energy shot up Sam’s spine as what little energy they had left in their body tried to crowd into their head and escape their embarrassment. They weren't good at superficial freindliness but it still hurt when people were cold to them.

After this awkward exchange they were torn between looking up to see if anyone was watching, and looking down to hide in a little cave. The little cave side won. Sam sat down and studied the imperfections in the bar. As they pondered what events caused these wounds to the wood, they realized that the music playing had actually been live. There was, indeed, someone else there. A musician, who was now talking about something between songs. Sam zeroed in and processed the last couple words: “Thank you all so much for coming out to see me.”

Panicked, Sam turned around to see how many other people were there. They couldn’t see all the way into the room that the musician was in but the part that they could see was empty. They breathed a sigh of relief. 

Was the musician joking about there being people there?

As the next song started it looked like Sam was staring at the musician, even though they hadn’t processed him yet. They started to notice him now– orange overalls, floral blouse… As their gaze wandered up to his necklace and dangly earrings they realized that he was staring right back at them. 

Sam froze. The musician’s gaze was on them for uncomfortably long, almost like he was messing with them, until he jovially broke the eye contact and looked around the room. Sam finally unfroze enough to turn back towards the bar. Their face was burning with embarrassment, but not the same kind as with the bartender. There was a warmth to it this time, and they wanted to keep looking back. 

The energy of the new song felt like the color maroon to Sam, which was comforting, like being wrapped in a soft blanket. They felt the colors of the song vary with the notes, and still wanted to turn back to watch the musician play, which they eventually did.

Usually Sam could only see energy fields when they were feeling grounded and present. Hence, it almost never happened in bars. However, this guy was clearly surrounded by green energy with bright bursts of orange, yellow, and white light throughout. It was annoyingly bright, but magnetic. 

Sam was watching the different colors dance out of the keyboard and blend into the maroonish wave when the musician looked at them again. This time with a big smile on his face, the musician stared right at Sam and continued singing directly to them. A spark of energy ran through Sam's energy field short circuiting their nervous system and they quickly turned back to the bar. "It is blue, it is glass, it is labeled" they said to themself, describing items around the room, attempting to come back to their body. Their tailbone was activated like when they get triggered, and their nervous system flooded, but they were also full of feelings that they couldn’t really identify, some of which were kind of nice.